No one had expected that
The Return Void Realm cultivators had held back before for two reasons: first, they feared the artifact spirit fire bird, and second, because of Xie Quan. With Xie Quan subdued by Yang Kai, they naturally had to tread carefully, terrified that any misstep would provoke Yang Kai into killing. After all, they had witnessed his ruthlessness. If Xie Quan truly died, they would have no way to explain themselves to
But now, that concern was gone in an instant — and the one responsible was Yang Kai himself. This was both shocking and infuriating. Only then did the crowd realize that they had completely underestimated this young man's madness and contempt for everyone around him!
Without Xie Quan as a hostage, did he think a mere Saint King Realm cultivator could stand here and hold equal discourse with so many Return Void Realm masters? And when they considered that Xie Quan's death, along with the deaths of those Xie Family disciples, would enrage Xie Li, the crowd could no longer stay calm. Ma Xinyuan pointed at Yang Kai from afar, jabbing his finger repeatedly, seemingly too furious to speak. After a long moment, he ground out through clenched teeth: "Brat, you're dead. Now you're really dead."
"Brother Ma, stop wasting words with him. We should grab him and hand him over to Steward Xie — that's what matters," someone beside him barked coldly.
"You think you lot can do it?" Yang Kai laughed wildly. If
This was nothing like last time in the Corpse Cave, where he'd had to drag
Here, there were only seven or eight Return Void Stage One cultivators. Trying to hold him here was nothing but a pipe dream.
"I'll tear this Tianyun City apart first, and then we'll settle our score!" Yang Kai's voice turned abruptly cold. He pointed a finger and commanded in a low voice: "Burn it!"
The artifact spirit fire bird received its orders and let out a piercing cry toward the sky. Flames roiled across its body as the fire-attribute spiritual energy of heaven and earth surged into it once more. In the blink of an eye, it seemed to have grown even larger.
At this sight, the faces of the Return Void Realm cultivators changed drastically. They circulated their Sacred Yuan to form barriers outside their bodies and summoned their own defensive artifacts for protection.
The next moment, the fire bird's massive maw opened. A blinding ball of light could be vaguely seen forming within its mouth before being spat out — a terrifying beam of fire shot forth, its stored heat so intense it nearly melted the space around it, making one's skin crawl. It hurtled straight toward the ground.
The artifact spirit's target wasn't any particular person, but rather the largest-looking shop nearby.
Yang Kai had firmly decided to turn Tianyun City upside down.
After all, this was the very first real conflict since Dragon Cave Mountain had been truly established!
Before the fire even reached the shop, the building had already caught fire from the intense heat. The next instant, a beam of mystic light suddenly shot in from the distance, arriving before the flames and striking into the shop. Then, a membrane-like energy barrier enveloped the building in a tight shell.
This was the shop's defensive restriction — essentially a protective formation. Every shop of decent size in Tianyun City had one, though their power varied depending on the owner's wealth.
This shop's restriction was clearly not weak. The outer energy barrier glowed with a soft green luminescence, rippling like water waves — obviously something carefully set up.
Even so, when the firelight struck the restriction, it shook the barrier violently, nearly shattering it outright. The green glow dimmed instantly and held for barely two breaths before crumbling apart with a thunderous crash.
The fire continued its unstoppable descent toward the shop.
Just then, an artifact that resembled a round bowl suddenly flew in from the side, expanding to over a dozen zhang in diameter mid-flight and positioning itself directly above the shop.
Caught off guard, the fire plunged into the bowl. Instantly, a blue radiance bloomed from within, gathering the firelight into a ball and suppressing it inside. A middle-aged man dressed in scholar's robes materialized eerily above the bowl, his expression grim. He struck the bowl several times with waves of Sacred Yuan, channeling his divine sense to make it rapidly shrink back to its original size.
The middle-aged scholar waved his hand and recalled the bowl, staring blankly at the flames still roiling within, his face unsightly.
"So you finally come out!" Yang Kai snorted coldly. He made no further move, simply standing in place and watching the middle-aged scholar.
The moment he had stepped into Tianyun City, he had already sensed this person's presence — after all, this man possessed the cultivation of Return Void Stage Three!
Aside from him, there was no one else in all of Tianyun City whom Yang Kai had to be wary of. Otherwise, he wouldn't have been so reckless before.
What puzzled him was that no matter what he did, the other party had shown no intention of revealing himself. But Yang Kai had kept him in mind, and now, at the very moment the shop was about to be destroyed, this person could finally hold back no longer.